Emergency Energy Tank

As we're finally approaching the end of this quest
I come across a little chest
And inside it is a Megalixir!
A potion in its prime!
Should I toss it in a keg or mixer?
Or seal it for all time?
It fully heals everyone in my crew!
So until I need it, Megalixir, I'm hangin' on to you!

— Terra, "Megalixir (A song about item hoarding)" by Matthew Taranto

In many games, there are items that refill some of your health and energy. But sometimes, that's not enough. Sometimes, there's a special inventory item that completely refills your health and/or energy, as well as removing Status Effects or even reviving a character from death. You'd better save it for the right moment, though, because once you use it, it's gone, and you'll have to find another one—and there's often only a finite amount of them in the whole game.

This is the Emergency Energy Tank: the ultimate fully-revitalizing panic button. Whether locked in battle with That One Boss or desperate for healing in the Drought Level of Doom, the Emergency Energy Tank can give you a crucial second wind. Use it wisely.

A very specific Sub-Trope of Too Awesome to Use and Healing Potion.

Compare Auto-Revive, Heart Container, 1-Up.

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Examples:

Non-Video Game Examples

• The Dragon Ball series has senzu beans. When a character eats it, his or her energy is completely revitalized and all injuries are healed instantly. An amusing moment occurs when Big Eater Yajirobe eats a basket full of them and gains a seriously upset stomach, with senzu bean creator Korin telling him afterwards that you're only supposed to eat one when you're not at a 100% healthy condition, and only one (they have the secondary effect of "feeding a man for ten days"). Later in the series, the villainous Cell is fully aware of how awesome these are, and proceeds to use his superior speed to just swipe them from the support character who brought them for the team's big showdown against him.
• In Dungeons & Dragons 3^rd Edition, the Heal spell fully restores Hit Point, undoes ability score damage, cures poison and disease, and removes several Status Effects. Downplayed slightly in 3.5 Edition, where it removes more status effects but restores a set number of hit points rather than a total refill.
• A few Fighting Fantasy books would grant occasional options, such as an extra powerful healing spell, which could restore the player's SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK all the way to their initial levels, all at once. In the Sorcery! subseries the player can do this only once per book, by praying for their Patron Godess, Libra, to revitalize themselves.

Action Adventure

• The Legend of Zelda
  • Fairies are the series-standard item for (depending on the game) refilling some or all of your life. These fairies can be used in two different ways if you catch one. You can assign her to a button during game play and press it, or (starting with A Link to the Past) she can automatically revive you if you die, a move that will keep your game from being over. Various potions can also recharge your health or mana.
  • Since neither Phantom Hourglass nor Spirit Tracks have empty bottles, the fairies are replaced by Purple Potions, which you can drink manually, or Link will drink it automatically when he dies.
  • Similarly in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and the The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games for Game Boy and Game Boy Color respectively, you have no bottles. All three games allow you to obtain a Magic Potion which will save you from death once and they vanish afterwards.

Fighting Games

• The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series senzu bean capsules which, when equipped, basically act as an extra life for your character after he or she has been KO'd, with varying degrees of vitality recovery depending on the bean equipped. The strongest is the 100% senzu bean, which restores your vitality completely, but due to being the strongest of the beans, it takes up a lot of space in your character's custom capsule inventory.

First Person Shooters

• Marathon 2 and 3 have canisters that heal you instantly, as opposed to health stations. They are rare, but usually useful where they are placed. The health canisters come in red for full health, yellow for double health, and purple for triple health. They are more common than health stations in multiplayer.
• The Portable Medkits from Duke Nukem 3D.
• The Mystic Urns of Heretic basically act as this.
• The Bacta Tanks from the Jedi Knight series are a delayed healing alternative to regular instant-effect medpacks. They are very much sought after until you learn the Force Heal magic.
• The Blood series has the Doctor's Bag, which had enough supplies to return 100 hit points until exhausted or another is picked up. Though unlike most examples on this page the Bag is not a single-use item, and in fact is less wasteful for healing tiny injuries than a regular health pickup. At times - especially whenever another Bag is available on the level - this can invert Too Awesome to Use; players can prioritize staying at full health between fights above needing to hit a key to heal while under attack to the point where the health pickups can end up left on the map untouched.
• The Medic Bag in PAYDAY: The Heist fully restores your health and resets your knockdown counter (three downs puts you in police custody, taking you out of the game). Because each player can hold only a limited amount (assuming you have more than one player that has one in their loadout), people generally won't deploy one until someone on the team needs it and the bag can't be moved once placed. PAYDAY 2 has the Doctor Bags as well, but the sequel also introduces First-Aid Kits that can fully restore your health while not resetting your knockdown counter. The kits also come in bigger quantities than the Doctor Bags.

Hack and Slashers

• Possibly an unintentional version in the Dante's Inferno game: By spending "soul" points (rather than collecting relics a la God of War), you can purchase health and mana upgrades. When you purchase them, it also gives you the bonus of refilling the gauge to maximum. Because these upgrades can be purchased pretty much whenever you're permitted to pause, you can refill your health and mana at will in the middle of a fight, which helps to balance out the slew of incredibly cheap bosses the game throws at you.

Metroidvania

• Jenka in Cave Story will give you a life pot about 1/4 of the way through the game. You can use it at the inventory screen to heal all of your HP, but only once, and you can only carry one at a time, so you have to go back to Jenka to get another one (unless you're at the Plantation near the end of the game, where one of her dogs can also give you one).
• Metroid
  • Super Metroid:
    • The game has these in addition to the standard energy tanks. However, you can also set them to activate automatically upon running out of energy, making them an example of both this and Auto-Revive.
    • The game includes a technique known as the Crystal Flash, the stricter requirements of which can be read here. It eats up a lot of your ammunition, but fully heals you, unlike Concentration, which can only replenish a number of your Energy Tanks based on how many E-Recovery Tanks you've collected (there are only three in the game). Also, unlike the Crystal Flash, which you're safe during and happens rather quickly, you can be hurt while concentrating and it'll take a while, but the rate at which you recover health and ammunition can be improved with Accel Charge powerups.
  • Metroid: Other M features a variation: when Samus' HP are low, she can "Concentrate" to restore a small amount of HP (normally this only restores missiles). You can also collect E-Recovery Tanks which increase both the amount of HP restored and the threshold at which this option becomes available.

Platform Games

• Mega Man
  • Energy Tanks are introduced from Mega Man 2 onwards. To use it, you go to the inventory screen and select it to refill your HP—or selected weapon ammo if it's the Weapon Tank variant—to 100%. Some of the games feature a special variant (Mystery Tank or Super Tank, depending on the game) which completely refills not just your HP, but every single item in your inventory that happens to have less-than-100% energy.
  • The Sequel Series Mega Man X however had the rarer (four in the early games, and later only two) but refillable Sub Tanks instead. These are carried over to the later Sequel Series in the timeline. Unlike the main series, they refill a percentage of X's health dependent on how full the Subtank is. It uses up any energy left over if X's health fills up completely in the process, and even a full Subtank won't completely refill his health if he's taken too much damage and has collected all of the Heart Tanks.
  • In the Mega Man Zero series, there are Cyber Elves. They vary in function, but some can heal you partially or completely or even become Sub Tanks. Using any of the Fusion Elves (all of the ones that heal you or become a Sub Tank are Fusion Elves) even once results in them dying permanently and you receive an end of the level score penalty, however. That is, unless you're in Zero 3's Cyberspace, in which case, certain Fusion Elves are automatically activated without dying (though, none of those are of the healing variety and you're automatically penalized every time you go in there, except for one instance).
  • The Mega Man ZX series allows you to have both Sub Tanks and Energy Tanks. In story, Energy Tanks are referred to as ancient technology that people have suddenly started using again for some reason and are very expensive.
• The Mega Man-esque doujin game series RosenkreuzStilette have Cross Tanks that function similarly to the Energy Tanks of the classic Mega Man series.
• Mighty No. 9 have a variant in the form of AcXel Recoveries, which comes in "I" and "II" flavors. "I" can be obtained by absorbing blue Xel enemies, while "II" is found sparingly or from a Patch if you died many times. These can be used either in-game by pressing the assigned button (the Select/Back buttons on consoles or F1 on PC) or through the pause menu. Unlike its spiritual predecessor, if you lose a life while holding AcXel Recoveries, you lose them as well.
• Little Samson has potions that provide full energy refills. Only the specific character that picked a potion up can use it.

MMORPGs

• Potions in World of Warcraft work like this. They can be used in battle, but can't be spammed due to a long cool down that affects all potion usage and doesn't start until you leave combat. As such one must know when to use potions to avoid wasting it.
• Mabinogi has full recovery potions, which does Exactly What It Says on the Tin; it recovers one's HP (including wounds), MP and stamina. Be wary though, that unlike in the case of resurrection, you are subject to potion poisoning in this case.
• White Mages in Final Fantasy XIV has Benediction, which fills the target's entire lifebar. This may serve as the healer's panic button.

Role Playing Games

• Final Fantasy has some recurring items that fit the trope:
  • Elixirs restore all of your HP and MP, but are either not buyable or cost something obscene like 100,000 gil.
  • Even better are the half a dozen or so Megalixirs (like an Elixir, but affects all of the player's characters) and Megaphoenixes (revives every unconscious character) an average player is likely to find. These are held as sacred relics and only dug into when there's a boss you know you need the boost for.
• Chrono Trigger has Megalixirs, full HP/SP recovery for the whole party. While they remain exceedingly dear throughout the game, it's entirely possible to steal an infinite number from a recurring (and fairly easy) foe near the end.
• The Mario & Luigi series features the Max Mushroom, which completely restores a selected brother's HP, the Max Syrup, which restores all Bros. Points, and the 1-Up Super, which revives a KO'd brother with max HP. There have been a few items that restore all HP and BP; Superstar Saga has the Golden Mushroom, Bowser's Inside Story has the Star Candy, Dream Team and Paper Jam have the Max Candy, and Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey has Cheesy Drumsticks which are exclusive to Bowser only (in the original game, he used Syrup to restore his BP like the Mario Bros. do, and he could also eat Star Candy).
• Dungeon Siege has Rejuvenation Potions, in small, regular, large, and super sizes like all potions. They restore more mana and health than their equivalent HP and MP potions combined. However, they are more expensive, can only be consumed once, and except for a few select locations, can only be found in stores. At least those stores have infinite potions.
• Dragon Quest games have most things with Yggdrasil (or just 'World Tree') in their name. The leaves tend to revive one ally, while dew heals the party. They can usually not be bought. NPCs that give either one, which appear in some games, will not give you one if you already have one in your inventory.
• The Sacred Ash in Pokémon is extremely rare, found only once or twice per game, but it fully revives all of your Pokémon at once—essentially a portable Pokémon Center.
• Soma in Shin Megami Tensei games fully restore health and MP, usually to the whole party. (In some games, Soma Drops do it for just one person. In other games, Somas heal only one person, Soma Drops partially heal HP and MP, and Great Somas fully restore the entire party.) They're also ridiculously rare, usually unable to be bought. In some games they can be sold to NPC merchants for thousands of macca (and even then you're getting suckered), or very little (to keep you from selling them). Amrita Soda is its counterpart for Status Effects in some games. Finally, in Shin Megami Tensei 1, the stat-boosting incenses also healed you fully, meaning you had to decide whether to take the boost now or sit on them for emergencies.
• Miracles in the Lufia series fully restore a character's HP and MP, as well as curing any status effects (including Non-Lethal K.O.). Lufia: The Legend Returns features the even-rarer and even-more Too Awesome to Use Croquettes, which function as Miracles on your entire party (which, in this game, is up to nine people. In Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals, Miracles have the same function as in the previous games, but as they're the only item that can revive and can be purchased from shops for a fairly cheap price, they're not quite Too Awesome to Use.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Morrowind:
    • There are different qualities of potion ranging from "Bargain" at the bottom to "Exclusive" at the top. The rare "Exclusive" Restore Health and Restore Magicka potions restore your health or magicka (respectively) by 200 points. This is more than enough to fully restore all but the highest leveled player characters.
    • Only two Potions of Heroism exist in the game. These potions both fortify your health and fatigue by 50 points each, as well as give you a Healing Factor that restores 5 points of each per second for 60 seconds, for a total of 300. Furthermore, it both fortifies your attack and gives you a magical shield for its duration as well. Too Awesome to Use, indeed.
  • Oblivion:
    • Welkynd Stones are gems scavenged from Ayleid Precursor ruins that can be shattered to refill the Player Character's Mana reserves. Unfortunately, there's a set number of them in the game, and the secret of creating them has been lost. The Ayleids, for their part, sometimes used them as lightbulbs.
    • Varla Stones are a different type of Ayleid gem, and significantly rarer. Using one will instantly and completely recharge all enchanted items in the player's inventory. Like Welkynd Stones, Varla Stones do not respawn.
  • Skyrim has several methods for rapidly refilling health, stamina, and magicka including...
    • Several races have daily power that speeds regeneration of Health (Histskin - Argonians), Stamina (Adrenaline Rush - Redguards) and Magicka (Highborn - Altmer) by ten times normal speed.
    • In the Dragonborn DLC, Mora's Boon is a once-per-day power that completely refills health, magicka, and stamina.
    • Potions of Ultimate Healing, Stamina and Magicka, which completely restore one reserve each and are relatively common at higher levels.
    • The Potion of Ultimate Well-being unfortunately only refills the reserves by 100 points; higher level players will have likely have several times this amount.
    • Unfortunately, none of these do anything about disease or poisons.
• Epic Battle Fantasy:
  • The first and second games have the Max Potion, which fully heals a single character's HP, the Max Ether, which fully restores a character's MP, and the Water of Life, which either revives a dead character, or fully restores their HP. From least to most expensive, a Max Potion costs 350 gold, Water of Life costs 1000, and a Max Ether costs 2200.
  • Starting with the third game's switch to food-based healing items, burgers and pizza have served this role, with burgers fully restoring a single character's MP and HP, and pizza doing the same for all living characters. Both are also among the most expensive healing items available (Burgers cost 10,000 gold in EBF3, 4 and 5, whilst pizza costs 40,000 in EBF3, costs 50,000 in EBF4 and is outright unpurchasable in EBF5).
    • Both work slightly differently in the fifth game - they both restore HP as usual, but shorten all active cooldowns by 3 turns instead (due to a cooldown system replacing MP). They also inflict the Stuffed status effect for 3 turns, preventing the use of any more food.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy 4 introduced Chilli Sauce, an unpurchasable item which immediately filled a character's Limit bar when drunk.
    • A nerfed version called the Chili Pepper replaced it in the fifth game - in addition to immediately filling the Limit bar, it also inflicts five stacks of Scorch when eaten.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy 5 introduced Espresso, a stronger (and unpurchasable) version of Coffee which revived a character with 150% of their maximum health.

Survival Horror

• The classic Silent Hill games feature the Ampoule, which can fully restore all health and in some games grants a brief period of invulnerability after use. You usually only find two or three of these throughout the length of a game.
• SCP: Secret Laboratory has SCP-500, which fully heals the player, cures most status effects and gives ten seconds of regenerating health when consumed. Acquiring it requires either opening a pedestal containing one (which requires a keycard with both Tier 2 Containment Access and Checkpoint Access), looting one off a dead player (which is unlikely), or creating them using SCP-914 (which becomes inaccessible after the Decontamination Process).

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